“I thought for sure that these woods were a one-hour-trip thing,” Eve muttered bitterly.
“That’s the thing about maps, Eve. They areminiaturedrawings of the world,” Ashley sneered at her, as she walked with her hands behind her head, relaxed despite the whispers lingering around us.
“I’m pretty sure we should’ve been out by now, regardless,” I added, making us all tense.
“Well, the name is fitting—Whispering Woods,” Eve snorted.
“Do you think there’s more to it?” Faelin asked curiously. “The whispers, I mean. What if it’s a trick to steal us away?”
“I bet there are a lot of temptation demons lingering in the shadows,” I returned. “There’s no other explanation really.”
“How long have we been walking?” Eve grunted again. “Minutes? Hours?”
“Hard to tell, the light hasn’t really shifted at all since we entered,” I said, glancing up.
The sky wasn’t even visible, the dark fog kept it from us.
Faelin swirled her hands in the air, and created a strong wind upwards, but nothing happened. The fog was too thick for her magic to sweep away.
“Worth a shot,” she muttered.
“Kill,” the voices whispered around us over and over again, like a low echo that never really went away.
“Is it just me, or are they getting ruder?” Ashley arched a brow at me.
“Perhaps we stick to no killing,” Eve suggested, but her grip around her rifle tightened all the same. “If it wants us to kill, we don’t.”
“Wait,” Faelin said, the fear in her voice brought us all to a stop. “I don’t see the other group anymore!”
She pointed towards the left and sure enough, the fog had become thicker, their silhouettes disappearing completely.
“Shit,” I breathed out. “When did that happen?”
I opened my mouth to shout, but Ashley shoved her hand over my mouth. “Don’t… that’s probably whattheywant, for us to panic.”
I nodded slowly as she removed her hand again.
“It can’t have been long, I saw them a moment ago,” Eve confirmed. “They’ll probably try to reach us once they notice, too. Or should we try heading left?”
I pressed my lips together. “I… I don’t know, what if we stray and…”
“Get lost? Oh, I think we’re already there,” Ashley chuckled without amusement.
“Shit… Shit… Shit…” I murmured again and again, the panic slowly taking over.
“Wait,” Faelin gasped. “Look!”
All our heads turned as we saw a shadow in the fog, the shape of a human, growing more opaque by the second. Myhand slid down to my holster, grabbing a firm hold of my gun’s grip.
“Be ready,” I urged the girls and felt how they tensed at my words.
The shape sprinting right at us became clearer, it was… Malakai?
He stopped a few feet away, panting. “There you are!”
“Yes.” It was the only word I was able to form.
“Where are the others?” Eve barked accusingly.
